Why public housing is necessary in New York City

The average New York City apartment currently rents for $3,109.

Between 400,000 and 600,000 of New York City’s 8.491 million people live in public housing projects, the largest public housing system in the United States.

President Donald Trump is planning to cut the budget for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development by 6 Billion dollars.

So, what does this mean to you, a college student, living in a dorm room in a rural New England town? Aren’t those who live in housing projects drains on the system? And should the worst happen, couldn’t these people move?

Although many of the world’s wealthiest people live in New York, many of its other residents live on $10 an hour in non-union jobs.  They work at Chipotle and Shake Shack serving financial analysts on their lunch breaks. They are the ones cleaning the bathrooms at prestigious law offices and hotels that executives frequent on their business trips. As housing prices steadily increase all over New York, where would the people who work serve others at these places live?

It is not only the working poor who have problems affording rent in New York City, but the middle class.  There are over over 1 million rent-stabilized privately-owned apartments in the city in which many people of median income occupy. This year, there will be a 1.25% increase in these rent-stabilized apartments after a 2 year rent-freeze. Many middle class residents who live in these apartments may see rent rise to the point where they will have to move to other Metropolises like Philadelphia and Boston, which will only further the gap between rich and poor in the city.

People look to New York to see where the the rest of the country is headed. New York City’s problem is a part of a larger problem with housing and will the large budget cuts that President Trump proposes to make in a time of economic uncertainty, could be devastating for millions of people.

One action you can take now is to sign two petitions calling on Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, not to go through with the planned cuts for the department:

Petition #1 by Miranda Becker: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/520/017/749/dont-cut-funding-for-public-housing-and-infrastructure/

Petition #2 by Mara Irwin: https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/threat-for-hud-budget

You, Dartmouth students, are the future of this country and this world.  In a few years, some of you may be in government or real estate and may have a direct impact the issue of affordable housing. The decisions you make now and in the next few years will affect many generations that follow you. So, make the right ones.

Sources: https://ny.curbed.com/2012/9/10/10330984/10-surprising-facts-about-nycha-new-yorks-shadow-city#comments

https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-new-york-rent-trends/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-budget-asks-for-6-billion-in-hud-cuts-drops-development-grants/2017/03/15/1b157338-09a0-11e7-b77c-0047d15a24e0_story.html?utm_term=.8204a67e5b3d